The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1887-04-16
Sc. The Persian master while usinr

sion. treats his servant geners ally with
great forbearance and allows him much
latitude. He will make % conidant of
him to-day and send him to 'eat the
stick" persian for bastinado) to-mor-
row. knowing well that the mar will
bear him no grudge. What the Per-
sian servant a not endure is indiffer.
ence. the sort with which the average
European or American would treat his
servant.
Although poorly paid, the Persian
servant has a lazy time of it, has often
a chance to steal a little. and stands on
a rather high rung Of the social ladder
in Persia. He, therefore, serves his
master about as well as he understands
it, and certainly as well as that master
deserves. Cases of unaffected devotion
OF mar to master are not by any means
rare, and the fallen fortunes of this or
that Persian grandee rarely deprive
him of the really valuable part Of his
following. One of the chief character
istics OF the Persian servant is his cheer
full way of 'coming round when
found out. If he sees that some little
theft. some particularly clever piece of
%rascality Of his, is discovered, he ac-
knowledges the corn with alacrity.
Sow khordam' q eat dirt, will be
his form of the pater peearui, and in
saying which he will throw him
self flat on the ground, lifting
up his feet in the air in token
Of his perfect willingness to submit to
a sound tl,rashing. To trace the origin
OF Il theft, however, is generally Il
pretty difficult matter. The favorite
method Of dealing with cases of domes-
tic theft the object stolen is worth
the troubles a mode of whitewashing
highly characteristic of the Eastern
mind. The modus Operandi is about as
follows: A large, flat dish, filled with
fine sand or flour, is placed on the
floor of a darkcned Don Then the
whole procession Of servants passes
through that room, II by one. When
the first II passes through the OPP
posite door the second one steps in.
and 80 on. Almost invariably the mis-
sing article is found in the dish at the
close Of the operation, and PROSTITUTION
made easy has carried the day. De-
tective tricks are hardly evcr played
on the poor, u~nsuspecting Persian
thief. Occasionally, however, an ex-
ception is made. especially since the
new chief of justice in Teheran. an
Italian nobleman, COUNT i Monteforte,
has imported some innovations into
the pastoral simplicity. 4 ludicrous
case for which he was responsible will
bear the telling. A theft of consider
able proportions had occurred in the
household of amin-ed-douleh minister
of the treasury and the eunuchs were
suspected. They, however, denied.
point blank. Then a mollah (priest)
was introduced into the house. after
first receiving his instructions from the
police chief. This venerable person.
age assured the assembled domestics
that the culprit would have his hand
palsied the moment he dipped it into
the dish iii the adjoining rom. Then
the servants all filed through the dark
ened room, being first solemnly adj
jured to touch the dish. The guilty
party wa caught. His fear betrayed
him. The dish contained sifted wheat
flour, and everybody's hand bore the
traces Of contact with the flour on
emerging from the Don except the
negro's. He was ut once accused by
the priest and confessed. Of course
he attributed the detection to sorcery;
the simple but effective trick had not
been fathomed by this child of nature.
Such heroic measures are, however.
but seldom ~resorted to in Persian
households. ITO take and let take is
there the motto which is not often devil
ated from.
One more peculiar custom connected
with domestic service in vogue in that
country deserves mention. Like the
asylums and sanctuaries of the middle
ages. many Pcrsians who have COM
mittcd Il crime. incurred the enmity of
a powerful noble. or made themselves
otherwise very obnoxious, seek service
in the house of Il mighty protector to
escape the consequences of their do
ings. Thus, on the election of a new
favoritc to the rank of sadr azcm
(grand vizier) the new-ledged digni-
tary will at once find flocking under
his banner hundreds of these men. He
will ask them what they want, and
they will simply make reply: Now
kerr mikonam' q am doing You SER
vice). and that will settle it. These
refugees are often men of wealth and
station, and will not ask for nor expect